Anger is a normal emotion that every person feels and experiences in their life. It can be caused by simple things like stubbing your toe, or maybe you are frustrated because you forgot your wallet at home, and therefore you have no money to buy lunch at work today. Those are normal reasons to get upset. However, what if you feel angry all the time over every small thing in your life? What if everything other people do sets off an emotional reaction within you? That’s where anger management comes in.
Admitting that you might have an anger problem could greatly benefit your recovery and help you learn to get it under control. At Buena Vista, we can help you take a deep dive into the root of your anger and even help you work through it so that anger no longer consumes your life.
Anger Management: Healthy Outlets for Frustrations at Buena Vista
Anger is a natural emotion that we all feel anger at times. However, some people are much easier to anger. Others seem to have built-up anger inside them, just trying to find a reason to explode. Learning anger management skills at Buena Vista can help you find healthy outlets for your frustrations instead of letting them fly out at anyone and everything around you.
The first step to managing your anger is to identify when you are feeling angry. Once you can objectively identify when the anger is rising inside of you, try the following to calm down:
- Think before you speak
- Once calm, express concerns
- Get some exercise
- Take a timeout
- Identify possible solutions
- Use humor to release tension
- Practice relaxation skills
These are just some small suggestions, but finding what works for you will help you be the most successful. That can be done individually or with the help of a therapist, which we offer at Buena Vista.
Anger Management Improves Communication
If you are working through addiction, taking the step to assess your anger issues, if you have them, can be very useful. It will give you tools and suggestions as to how to communicate what is going on inside your head without making things worse for the situation that you are in. You will learn to have more control over how much anger escapes your body and when you will allow it to escape.
When we learn to control our anger, it opens the door to better communication with those around us. Ultimately, this will strengthen the relationship we have with others around us. In turn, this helps us with our addiction when we are able to have better relationships with those around us. And that type of connection can help bring someone struggling with addiction out of an isolated feeling.
Controlling Anger and Controlling Your Life
If you are someone who really struggles with angry outbursts, you might be able to resonate with the feeling that you have no control over yourself and your emotions. After an angry outburst, you might even realize that you flew off the handle over something small, and it was not necessary. But at the moment, you just cannot control it.
Anger management can help you learn to stop at the moment before you explode. And that kind of control of your anger can help you feel like you have control over your life. When you feel like you have control over your life, you might feel like you can control your addiction. You can control the cravings. And, you can control how you will react when someone tries to offer you drugs or alcohol while you are in active recovery. You can be in control of your life.
Anger Is Not All Bad
While anger can be detrimental to your life, it can also be healthy and appropriate at times. Anger can help motivate us to do things and stand up for ourselves or others when we are being mistreated. It can help us to feel less afraid of certain situations or people that make us feel uncomfortable. So anger has its purpose. However, when anger is uncontrollable, it is destructive to our lives and our relationships. It can fuel your addiction and push everyone away from you, leaving you with no support.
At Buena Vista Recovery, we can help you identify when your anger is building up within you. We can help you decide on appropriate anger responses because there is a time and place for properly expressed anger. We offer one-on-one sessions with trained professionals, or maybe a group setting will help you better. Sometimes a group setting that has other people facing similar feelings and situations, they can tell you how they dealt with them. It can be a very productive environment.
Anger is a strong and natural emotion that all people feel from time to time. It can even be a productive emotion. However, more times than not, anger can overtake people, and they might not know how to control it. Anger can feed a person’s addiction by not taking accountability for their actions because everything is everyone else’s fault. It can push people away, causing them to isolate themselves, which in turn makes the addiction worse. We can help you learn to manage your anger and overcome your addiction. Let us support and guide you on this journey on the road to recovery! For more information about the services we offer, call (480) 741-9414.
